From Ten to Four til Eight Past Nine
by NabikiB
Summary: Set During GitF. Rose figures out a way to get safely off the nameless spaceship the TARDIS is parked in by asking the Timeship for a small favor...oh boy is Tenth gonna be in Trouble.


Summary: Set During GitF. Rose figures out a way to get safely off the nameless spaceship the TARDIS is parked in by asking the Timeship for a small favor...oh boy is Tenth gonna be in _Trouble_.

**From Ten to Nine**

"What are you doing?"

"Asking the TARDIS to contact a _prior _Doctor and see if he can't fetch _himself_ from France."

"_Can _she dothat?"

"She's _doing_ it. She just has to tell one of her younger self's Doctor what's going on and ask him to either grab himself or come get us...I don't really care _which_."

Mickey stared at her. "So...how will we tell?"

"I guess that if he materializes a younger TARDIS around us, he's picking us up and if he lands _in _the Console Room he's dropping Ten off."

"Tight fit, much?"

"Probably. So, which one do you want, Ten or who ever has to clean up after him? I don't think Ten can handle more than one human at a time...he's a little _unstable_."

"I can handle him."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm not _that_ big of a wuss."

She just looked at him: Obviously, Mickey hadn't understood her intentions. She didn't _care_ which other Doctor came..._she _was going with the other one as soon as his doors opened. The TARDIS was fully aware of this and was grumbling a little but did not argue about it.

To the TARDIS she said silently,_ "If he's last him, he'll place me will a younger him...if he's a different one, I'll stay with that him. I gave up my species for him, let you force-evolve me into Bad Wolf __**just**__ for him, to match his lifespan and bear his children, to share his forever, so that I can love him and let him love me...and he pulls __**this**__ stunt? I won't take second place to a whore. Just get ready to have your youngerself put __**my**__ bedroom in place. Mickey can do whatever he wants." _

* * *

><p>The new Old TARDIS disgorged the Doctor she knew and she stood to one side and almost behind the open door...until he was past her, then she darted into the younger Doctor's TARDIS. She didn't even look to see <em>which <em>Doctor it was.

"Mickey wants to stay with _older_ you...I _don't_ though. My first you wouldn't have just ridden off like that with no way back...and left us to rot. He didn't even know the name of that ship we were on and I'm guessing you had to get this her actually track and locate _that_ her. I'm guessing he's a bit unstable...and I hate not being able to trust my Doctor...so I thought I'd go with one that _hasn't_ lost his mind, not yet, anyway. Mind if I...?" She trailed off when she finally looked up and saw her rescuer. He was curly haired, had huge teeth and a colorful scarf of an impressive length.

"Ah. Four."

_"How?"_

"Gallery wall."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be, not this you."

"Still."

"Still nothing, you got me out of it, didn't you?"

"Shouldn't have needed to rescue you from _myself_, of all people. Now, the TARDIS informs me that while you were with the me before the idiot in the pinstripes, something she won't give details on...due to my extreme youth..._relatively_," He added at Rose's grin, "You found it needful to allow the elder version's TARDIS to rewrite your DNA into someone who will match my lifespan and can bear my kids. The hard way."

"Yep."

"Why?"

She just looked at him for a moment, then looked up, smirked. "It involved over thirty thousand Daleks and you with no possible back up or any way out. I don't run out on people in a crunch. That's why I just asked her for a _different _you instead of..."

* * *

><p>"Yes. Thirty thousand. That's a <em>lot <em>of Daleks."

"Yeah, well...I looked into her Heart, she looked into Mine, and she like what she Saw. We merged, the TARDIS and I..._and that's all you get_." She told his gaping, sagging jaw. "That was the you _before _the idiot in the pinstripes. I don't think he knows I'm not aging or that my DNA was so drastically altered, but that's because he never bothered to _check_. My first you, would have had me in the med-bay before I could spit, but not _that _one." She reached down and idly caressed the side of the console, eyes flickering behind him at the changing desktop.

"What?" He turned and sighed. "Desktops match residents as much as myself. You've merged with her, she says some of your organic DNA is shared...you have some of the same sorts she's got. Says you understand her."

"She's my sister, 'course I understand her. We share just enough to be related."

He sighed. "I'm getting very _tired _of Daleks."

"Well, if this body has already had the traditional Dalek run-in, then we can move right along to Cybermen."

"Met those this body."

"Ah. Weeping..."

"Those too."

"Cool, all _three _of the big nastiest. How do feel about Earth beaches? Say, Hawaii in the 50's? It's weird, in a way, all over the flippin' place and have yet to set foot on my own planet's hotspots."

"Good point."

"I almost had my head cut open and my brain removed by a clockwork droid, while your elder was off playing with a french whore. Yes, relaxing would be good. And I want to get used to and comfortable with _this _you. Let me adjust, yeah?"

He shuddered. He took her head in his hands, gently and found the first of the incisions that had been made...other him hadn't even bothered to heal _those_. "Med Bay, _now_, Rose Tyler." He said softly. "I don't understand what's wrong with me, _then_."

He did leave the door unlocked knowing that the self that had originally claimed her as a companion wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. He also didn't think she needed to hear the shouting match that would surely follow...so he _sedated _her. He had to heal those cuts from the bone saw anyway, that would be easier if she wasn't awake for it, never mind the sutures. He merely warned her he'd be healing bone and didn't want her to suffer unduly...and then she was out.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, _stealing _Rose?"

"Stealing? She asked _your _TARDIS for a younger you, to come and rescue her _**from you**_." Fourth told Ten tightly. "Get out of my light while I heal the cuts she got from that droid's bonesaw...which you couldn't be bothered to take care of before heading back to the 18th century, through what my version of our TARDIS says is a _one way_ portal through time...you abandoned Rose, that boy out there _and _our TARDIS. _Just what the hell is wrong with you? _"

* * *

><p><em>"Bonesaw?"<em> Ten blanched as his eyes zeroed in on the cuts in Rose's skull, swallowed hard, "I...didn't know. I _thought _I got there in time."

"_Did you check?_ Did you make sure? _No?_ Well, she wants _me _to take her to Hawaii. 1950s and just relax a bit and get know this me. She doesn't trust you..._can't _trust you, _you did that to us_. Why don't you ask the TARDIS to answer the questions I have...she'll answer _you_. Like, _why isn't Rose aging? _And why was her DNA altered, when she merged with the TARDIS, into something that makes it possible,_ likely even_, that she can bear our children? And why she would need to defend _me _from thirty thousand Daleks...she wouldn't say. Just that there was no possible backup available so she did what needed doing." He finished closing the last of four shallow cuts in the girl's skull, then closed the wounds in her scalp. As he cleaned her up, he leveled a glare at his elder. "I repeat, what the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you abuse her like that when she obviously adores me? As far as I can tell she doesn't really give a damn which body I'm on."

"No. She doesn't. I didn't know about the not aging thing."

"Did you check? Do you even look after your humans anymore? Well, you're _going _to look after that boy out there, even I can see he's got the potential to be _brilliant_...but you don't get Rose back. And that's because this girl wants to stay with _me_. Because I won't treat her like that...and she knows this because _I was the self selected by the TARDIS to come and fetch her_."

Ten looked away, sensing few memories from the self in front of him, memories full of Rose...and the speed at which he'd summoned last him...he'd had to prove she could depend on him, _Fourth _him. Meant calling the self she was _sure _of. He let a few tears slip down his face. "I love her."

"Do you? You've got a damned odd way of showing it." Fourth snapped. "Now, get off my TARDIS, you've got your own. Rose is going to be living in an infirmary for a few days while these heal, during which time she and I can get more comfortable with each other and then, I'm going to show her _Hawaii _and I'll show her how to play." He shoved the elder self out of his medical bay, watching his TARDIS vanish the door so the other self couldn't get back in. He knew Ten would be herded none too gently out of the younger TARDIS.

* * *

><p>"Poor girl. Gave me everything you had to give, and Ten throws it in your face?" He told the unconscious new companion...<em>no<em>...mate. She was his mate, _nothing less. _First he had to show her he could be trusted and depended upon...then he'd worry about courting her. "And I think I need to have a little talk with the me before the idiot in the pinstripes. Right then, Vortex, Retirement verse...and the Hawaii _there_, I think. Don't want to screw up the timelines in the _live _universe, so it will be best if I settle you with us retired ones. You won't lose that one twice, not now." He told the sleeping girl. "You'll have the lot of us, I think."

The sound of another time-ship landing on the other side of the med-bay, had him nearly growling. The him it disgorged wasn't the idiot, though.

* * *

><p>"You're lookin' for me, Four ?"<p>

"The me before the idiot in the pinstripes?"

"_Yeah_."

"Good. You'll be staying me, off and on, for a while." He moved aside so that his elder could see Rose. "His TARDIS had to call mine to come rescue her..._from Tenth_...that's not good. Since when do humans have to be rescued from _**me**_?" The low growl from the northern Doctor as he approached the girl had the youngster explaining everything, including Rose's physical changes and exactly what Tenth had done, right quickly.

His elderself finally sighed, nodded and scooped the girl...who snuffled at the leather clad shoulder, murmured 'Doctor' in her sleep and slide one hand around his neck in her sleep to pull herself closer. After Four told him what he'd treated her with and why, he carried her into her First TARDIS. "I'll take my turn with our bonded later, right now, she needs you. And I promised we'd keep her in the retirement universe, where she's cared for and looked after. My TARDIS said your me would know why she can have our kids and why she's not aging."

"Yeah, I _do_."

"The TARDIS said that she, Rose, I mean, gave us everything she was and Ten threw it in her face."

"You got that right. Ten can have Ricky. We'll just keep Rose right _here_."

The door closed and Fourth assumed he'd put her to bed in his own med bay first. Nine's response to Tenth's treatment of and behavior toward Rose was telling. She was every _bit _as close to him as he'd thought.

~ * TBC * ~


End file.
